Condemned 2: Bloodshot - first impressions

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Beat down things that go bump in the night in this frightening follow-up

Killing people to hunt down a serial killer - who is murdering serial killers - must have taken its toll on Ethan Thomas. The hardened ex-FBI agent has become a drunk and violent shadow of himself with another bloody case on his hands in Condemned 2: Bloodshot. What starts as a search for your missing partner, expands into a full blown investigation into the reason why citizens have transformed into zombified lunatics.

Expect Condemned's gruesome hands-on approach to combat - with an emphasis on getting up close and personal with enemies - to return in this gory sequel. While there will be firearms in the game, broken pipes, wooden clubs, and your bare mitts will be your primary weapons, and you'll rarely find yourself sniping from a safe distance.

"Let's get him in the head," said senior producer, Constantine Hantzopoulos before chucking a pipe at a charging madman during a brief demo we witnessed. Enemies will react more realistically to your brutal punishments this time around, playing into the game's combat system, which will often have you facing multiple foes at the same time.

Hit an enemy on the leg and he'll limp accordingly, dislodge his arm with a crushing blow and he'll contort his body to relocate it. It's all about buying precious seconds to survive long enough to dish out bloody finishing moves that'll let you introduce enemies to the environments in a variety of ways like smashing their head through nearby television, or sending them sailing into a dumpster.

But according to recent news, developer, Monolith Productions, has already pulled some of the more ultra-violent features out of Condemned 2 like putting someone's head in a vice and tightening it till it pops.